Birth
Ali b. al-Husayn (a), the fourth Imam, was born in Madinah in 38 AH, in the last years of his grandfather Imam Ali's (a) caliphate; the Shia commonly celebrate the birth on 5 Sha'ban, though 15 Jumada al-Ula is also recorded. He lived through the Imamate of his uncle Hasan (a) and the reign of Mu'awiya, and went with his father to Karbala at twenty-three.
The survivor
Too ill to fight on Ashura, he was the only adult male of the family to survive, and became the Imam as the caravan of captives was led away. His sermons in Kufa and in the Umayyad mosque of Damascus told the Syrians who the prisoners were, and his release marked the beginning of thirty-four years of Imamate in Madinah devoted to prayer, teaching and quiet care for the poor of the city.
Legacy
He was called al-Sajjad, the one who prostrates, and Zayn al-Abidin, the adornment of the worshippers, for the intensity of his devotion. His supplications, collected as al-Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya, are the most beloved prayer book of the Shia, and his Treatise on Rights a foundation of Islamic ethics. His birthday is the third of the Sha'baniyya celebrations.
Written for Shia Online Community. Dates and facts are checked against the references listed under Research & books; where the tradition records more than one date, all are given.
